Total Commander Pocket & WM5

[Andy2No]

I found Total Commander Pocket while looking for a simple text editor for my MDA Vario (aka HTC Wizard) with Windows Mobile 5.

It looks very useful but using the built in text editor isn't quite as smooth as I'd like because whenever I open a file with it, the pop-up onscreen keyboard appears, obscuring half of the screen. It still does it if I have the slide out keyboard slid out.

Is there a way to stop that happening? There are very few occasions when I'd want to use the onscreen keyboard - really just for characters I can't type.

When I first started playing with this phone a couple of days ago, I was quite content to use Word, though all I really wanted was a text editor. Then I found it couldn't handle files kept in sub folders more than one level deep so I started looking for something better.

I've just tried the Beta version for the better WM5 support. Unfortunately, the problem is still there.

Also, is there a way to set it to open text files with the built in text editor just instead of Word, by default? It's a small thing, but having to get the stylus out to click the little icon reduces the usability - the HTC Wizard Stylus is annoyingly small and gives me cramp, quite quickly. I've spent a lot of time looking around on the floor and under cushions for it too

Clicking a text file and automatically launching Word, then pressing the Ok button drops me out to Words inadequate file browser, instead of back to Total Commanders better one. It would be best if I could use Word just for actual Word documents.

[ghisler(Author)]

Unfortunately the built-in editor is very limited. It supports only files up to 64kBytes (128k for Unicode), because the Windows CE edit box has troubles with larger files. Therefore I haven't made it available as a separate program, sorry.

About the keyboard: I have written a small tool for you, one which I wanted to write a long time ago already - but now was a good excuse to write it.

It's a so-called "input method" IM, an OLE object which acts as an input panel on the Pocket PC. This input panel has a height of 0, so it will not appear at all! Some programs like Total Commander Pocket may not resize its main window correctly when there is an additional toolbar, so I will have to fix that in a later release...

Here is the tool:
ARM/XSCALE/PXA
Mips
SH3
x86

To use it, click on the little up arrow to choose the input panel type, and there choose "No input panel" as the type.

[Andy2No]

That's good. Thanks! I thought it wasn't working at first because I could see it and try to select it but it didn't get selected. It worked after a reset though.

I've only just realised the soft keys work the File and Show menus, so I can use File->Edit without using the stylus. They don't work the menus in the editor, but I've assigned one of the hardware buttons to Ok, plus there's a dedicated Ok button on the slide out keyboard on the Wizard. That gives me a way to get back to the file browswer without using the stylus so that's all I really need.

64k is still a pretty useful size. One of the real advantages of Palm PDAs is the memopad application - little text notes (memos), organised into categories. The memos are limited to 4k in the standard version but its still really useful. Using a text editor and a file browser to do the same thing is less seamless, but still useful.

One of the things that bothers me about my brief encounter with Windows Mobile is how much emphasis is put on the sylus, and on the HTC Wizard, it's annoyingly small and awkward to use. Applications I can use with just the hardware buttons and the slide out keyboard get my vote. Total Commander Pocket lets me do that for all the important functions.

A couple of things I would like to see in the editor are a small margin on the left hand side - the HTC Wizard seems to hide the left most column of pixels - and paging up and down with the hardware four way cursor keys.

Paging rather than just moving the cursor would be good for reading through files quickly, rather than having to scroll - and wait for the cursor to get to the bottom before it can start scrolling. I guess adding paging is no trivial matter though, and I don't know if Windows Mobile lets you distinguish between those keys and the normal cursor keys... I suppose it depends on the phone or PDA what buttons they have. None of the text editors I've tried support paging. The only thing that does is Word Mobile.

I tried the Orneta Mobile Notepad text editor but I wasn't all that impressed by it. The file browser in Total Commander Pocket is much more user friendly, and keyboard friendly. The Orneta editor had an option to set a left margin though (3 or 4 pixels indent is about right), so I guess it's a common problem on Pocket PCs. I've seen the same problem in a couple of different applications - text starts right on the left edge of the screen with no white pixels before the letters, so it's hard to read the first character on each line. Maybe it's a bug in Windows Mobile 5, rather than being specific to this PDA?

[Andy2No]

Could you add a New File to the File menu in Total Commander Pocket?

That's something the WM5 File Explorer doesn't have, and would make Total Commander Pocket easier to use to make organised notes (like Palm's MemoPad). A New .txt file menu item would be best for that - less keystrokes to use it.

I tried starting the built in editor then using File->Save As to create a new file but it suffers from the usual limitation in WM5 of only being able to save in the top level folders, or the top level folders inside My Documents.

I can understand you probably don't want to do any more development of the editor, but actually there doesn't seem to be much competition for a decent text editor. Something as simple as the standard Windows 9x,NT or 2k Notepad, with the ability to save a file anywhere in the filing system, just doesn't seem to be available for this operating system. The closest I've seen is PocketNotepad but there's a serious bug in it - on my HTC Wizard, the last three or four lines of any file aren't shown, apart from for files that fit entirely on the screen. Having a 64k file limit is a much less serious limitation than that

[DenisArd]

Could you add a New File to the File menu in Total Commander Pocket?

Just tap and hold the built-in editor button in the toolbar. You'll see a pop-up menu with "New file".

PS. Excuse my English. I use Google Translator.

[Andy2No]

I only just read that.

Thanks very much. That's useful.

The only problem is, it doesn't make the file in the current folder. It opens the text editor with a blank file, but it's homeless. I seem to have to use Save As, and it starts back at the top of the tree, even though I'm a few levels of folders deep when I tap and hold the button.

The Save As dialog in the file editor only offers the top level of folders, like the standard Windows Mobile applications do, so I can't put the new file where I want it.

It would be better if the File menu in the file browser made a new blank file in the current folder, maybe just called New File.

I guess development work on Total Commander Pocket stopped a while ago though, so I'm a bit late with my suggestions

[ghisler(Author)]

No, it didn't stop! The problem is that on some devices it's quite limited what you can choose as the save directory...

[Andy2No]

Sorry for the slow reply. I keep forgetting to check my hotmail account. I've changed it in my profile to an email account I check every day.

Yes, the standard Save dialog is a big limitation in Windows Mobile. I upgraded my HTCWizard to WM6 and it's still no better. There's a full featured FAT filing system but it's hidden by a poor user interface in the OS.

If you could make a New File as part of the File menu, that would be better. Just an empty file called New File would be fine, like making a new folder in normal Windows. We could then rename it to what we wanted. The advantage would be, the file would then be in the right place.

Most WM5 and WM6 applications seem to be able to edit a file and put it back where it was, so long as you exit by pressing OK (e.g. in Word Mobile - but refuse to let it change it to a DOC format or you have the same problem). The Save/Save As dialog is the only time when you're restricted in where you can save a file.

I guess another approach would be to write a new Save dialog, but that would be more work.

[Gerry Busch]

Yes, the standard Save dialog is a big limitation in Windows Mobile. I upgraded my HTCWizard to WM6 and it's still no better. There's a full featured FAT filing system but it's hidden by a poor user interface in the OS.

Here's a great workaround, which I've posted before: If you install File Dialog Changer on your device, Total Commander's editor will open or save files anywhere in the file system you want. Below are direct links for the two files you will need. They are in separate Zip archives. You may have to paste the URLs into your address bar; it's the only way I was able to download the files through this post:

File Dialogue Changer:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Cupertino/2039/filedlgchg.zip

gsgetfile.dll:
http://www.prco.jp/~shinichi/dl/dl.php?dl=30

There's no installer. Just unzip filedlgchg.cpl and gsgetfile.dll to the Windows directory on your device, then soft reset it. The next time you have Total Commander's editor open and use the Save or Open command, you should be able to see any subdirectory you wish.

This will not change the Word Mobile file list, but when you use Save As in Word, you'll notice quite a difference.

Look in System Settings on your device for the applet that lets you make exceptions for programs you may want to use with Windows Mobile's default file dialogue.

[Andy2No]

Thanks, Gerry.

It didn't seem to work at first, but it did after I ticked the "Exchange Standard File Dialog" box in the new control panel applet.

Navigating folders with it wasn't quite as I expected but I'm sure I'll get the hang of doing it the way it's supposed to work. I was wondering how to go up a level for a while, then I noticed backspace does it. It has a habit of trying to save in the current folder, even though I've navigated to a different one, but I can see there's a certain way of doing it that works.

I really don't know what Microsoft were thinking with Windows Mobile. It would probably have been better if they'd just shoe horned a version of Windows 98 on instead. The hardware in my HTC Wizard is probably better than a PC from that period, even though the screen is a bit smaller, but the OS seems a lot more primitive.

[Gerry Busch]

I was wondering how to go up a level for a while, then I noticed backspace does it.

There should be a software "Up" button in the bottom left corner of the screen, unless your device can't display the two "soft keys". There's also a Menu button opposite that lets you change the view to "Details", but that setting isn't retained between sessions.

I have no problem with the WM5 OS, and find it more streamlined than Windows 98 was, but the Microsoft apps built into ROM leave plenty to be desired, esp. Word. However, there are many great third-party apps that really empower the device, such as Total Commander. The native "File Explorer" is a joke; no file extensions visible, no properties dialogue, no way of resizing columns to accommodate long file names. Then along comes TC Pocket!

Gerry

[Andy2No]

Thanks, Gerry.

The soft buttons aren't being shown in the file save dialog, though they are shown in the main part of Word and other applications. They work as you described though, even though they're not visible.

TC Pocket is very good. The fact that there was ever a need for it shows that Microsoft slipped up though. The "one level deep" thing with folders is just ridiculous, especially on a phone which now has a 2GB SD card in it.

They haven't made a great job of the phone apps either. When I send a txt, I generally get the little light flashing yellow, which should mean I've got a message. That's after I've dismissed the pointless message telling me I sent one (I knew that already) and deleted the notification txt from the network that says it was received. The only way I've found to stop the light flashing is to reset the phone. If I don't, I'll never know if I get a txt. That was the reason I upgraded from WM5 to WM6, in the hope that it had been fixed. Apparently not.

Also, I had to set it so only the power button can turn it on (which is less than ideal) because otherwise it turned itself on in my pocket and rang the last number I dialled. That cost me quite a lot of my phone credit before I realised.

[Gerry Busch]

I can understand how frustrating your phone experiences can get, although my device is a PDA with no phone. My only phone is simply a basic cell phone without Windows Mobile, etc., and it is already a chore to use.

I wouldn't want phone capabilities in this thing, anyway, as I use it exclusively for writing and internet activities. That's why I appreciate TC Pocket, which has turned what normally would have been a mere toy into a full-fledged computer. I no longer use a desktop PC, and even this post is being written on the device (Dell Axim x51v). More and more Windows Mobile apps are being specifically designed for Smartphones these days and leaving me out, so I'm hanging onto my existing software collection like grim death.

Gerry